Che Osa Vince
by Destro-of-the-worldses
Summary: A troublesome fellow has left Italy and is in hiding in Australia. Two fratelli are dispatched to eliminate the dissident with the assistance of an ASIO agent.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Barry sat at the back of the briefing room with the rest of the Second Generation Handlers. Next to him, Andromeda was tapping her foot impatiently and appearing to try very hard not to punch something. Everyone else seemed to be waiting patiently, however this was likely not the case as most of them were well versed in hiding there true feelings, it came with the job.

Jean pressed a button on his laptop and a picture of an older looking gentleman with grey hair and a big nose appeared, "This is Salvatore Russo, also known as Mario Conti, Bruno Bianchi, Pietro De Luca, Angelo Ferrai, and a over dozen other aliases. As far as we can tell, he's an anarchist who thrives on conflicts such as we have here in Italy. His true identity is unknown. Last night we received intel from Section One that he has changed his identity again and-"

"Wait a second," Andromeda interrupted with a growl, "If we knew where this bastard was, why haven't we been sent in to kill him?"

"Because between Section One and Two, we've killed him twenty three times," Jean said grumpily, then continued on in a calmer voice, "They wanted to make sure he couldn't get away again, however their agent was compromised. We did, however, find out his latest hiding location: Fellgine, Western Australia. Andromeda, Barry, we're sending both of you in because you're the only Fratelli that haven't been compromised. The rest of you can leave now," Jean said as he picked up two folders, and then waited for everyone else to shuffle out of the room. "Your plane leaves in fourteen hours, you've got twelve to be ready…" Barry took the document offered to him and began reading through it as Jean talked, "…Andromeda, you're SamanthaHickens, and Barry, you're CraigHickens. A couple looking for a change, so they move to a small town in rural Australia with their two adopted daughters Trish and Ann. I hope you've been working on your Queen's."

"You want me and Victoria to go on an _undercover_ mission?" Andromeda laughed, "You sure there aren't any others, I mean, we aren't exactly your 'go-to' people when you aren't banging down doors."

"Believe me," Jean muttered, "You two were the last fratello we wanted on this mission."

Andromeda crossed her arms and glared up at Jean, "what the hell do you mean by that?"

"Like you said," Jean said as he walked out, "You two aren't exactly known for subtlety."

After a long string of swears and curses aimed at Jean, Andromeda sighed and muttered, "One day, I'm going to break that man's jaw."

Barry chuckled, "You did just mention that you're not good at undercover stuff, hon. Don't look at me that way," Barry said with a grin and a shrug as Andromeda glared up at him, "I'm just getting into character."

Andromeda shook her head and looked out the window at the whirling snow, "well, at least Victoria will be happy with the warm weather."


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Guess what series I don't own? That's right, Gunslinger Girl.

* * *

Chapter One

Road trip

Mercedes picked her bag off the rotunda at the PerthInternationalAirport and looked around for Andromeda. There had been some sort of mix up with the flights and Andromeda and Mercedes had been put at the front of the plane and Barry and Victoria had sat at the back. Mercedes hadn't been happy to be seated next to that swearing Czech, especially since she was terrified of flying.

Mercedes found Andromeda at the bar, a Cuban cigar in one hand and glass of wine in the other, slumped over the bar, "I fuckin' hate flying. I fuckin' hate it."

Mercedes sat on the stool next to Andromeda, and said just loud enough for the Handler to hear, "I'm surprised we were allowed to bring our side arms into the country, I thought we'd have to use Glocks or something supplied by the Australian government."

Andromeda laughed, "You're a lot more grateful than Victoria was; she wanted to bring her Neostead and 552. Personally, I'm just happy to be off that God forsaken plane."

Mercedes stretched her arms and leaned back against the bar, "You know that you're more likely to be kicked to death by a donkey than crash in a plane, right?"

The Czech woman took a long drag from her cigar and finished her wine, "by that theory, I should fucking stay away from God damned donkeys. I've been in three bloody crashes, so got a good damn reason to be weary of flying."

Mercedes shrugged, "If that's they way you want to act… Oh God," Mercedes muttered, smacking her forehead as she watched security officers running to customs, "that idiot really did it." She took a quick sip from the whiskey flask she had smuggled onto and off the plane.

"What did Barry do this time?

Mercedes sighed, "I had hoped he was just joking, but he said he was gonna make a scene."

A tall, blond haired woman approached holding a sign that read, 'Hickens', and sat next to Mercedes and addressed the bartender, "Gimme a Jacks an' Coke. A small one, I gotta drive."

"Tough day?" Mercedes asked.

"You wouldn't know the half of it," she said, dropping her head onto the bar top, "I gotta pick up this family from England, who were meant to be here two hours ago, and I've had to spend the past couple of days shopping and buying gifts for the people back in my home town. Not to mention it's thirty seven degrees outside. Sure it's warmer back in Fellgine, but still."

"A family of four from England?" Mercedes asked, "Two adults, two kids. One British-African male, three Caucasian females?"

The woman pointed at Mercedes and pressed her thumb down like the hammer of a revolver, "Bingo. Well, that must mean you're one of them, or pretty flamin' lucky. Where the heck are the other three?"

Mercedes nodded at Andromeda, "here's one of them, and the other two are probably getting arrested because of the male's sense of humour."

The woman sighed, and got up, "well, I guess I should go get them." She fished some keys out the pocket of her jeans, "there's a white Nissan Patrol right out the front, take your stuff and your ginger friend and wait there for me there while I get your friends."

000

Victoria was nervous, on the plane, she had thought Barry had only been joking when he said he was going to have some fun with security, but by the look on his face, he hadn't been joking.

The customs officer said there was suspicious residue on Barry's bag after it had gone through the machine and asked him to step aside for a moment. Victoria knew exactly what that residue was, and hid a smile by pretending to cough.

Barry erupted, "What, because I'm black I'm smuggling drugs? Or is it because I'm Muslim I must be a terrorist? This is racial profiling, and I won't stand for it!"

"You're not a fucking Muslim," Victoria mumbled, "and no one's going to believe that you are."

The officer had pressed a button and security was on its way.

"Oh look, it's their armed goons, good, this place needed more bigotry. Yeah, that's right, I'm black _and _Muslim, you'd better arrest in case I'm a drug smuggling terrorist! YOU…" an officer tackled Barry to the ground, and then one tackled Victoria to the ground as well.

"Hey, what the hell?" Victoria demeaned as she struggled against the brute of a man who was trying to cuff her, "What the fuck are you cuffing me for?"

The man said nothing to Victoria, but called to another officer, "Gimme some help here, would you? She's stronger than she looks."

Victoria glared at Barry, who was looking at her, smiling like an idiot, "I hate you. I fucking hate you."

The pair was being dragged to… somewhere, Victoria never found out because a tall, blond haired woman approached the officers, holding up a badge, "Hold it right there, buddy, ASIO, I'll take it from here."

"Um, ma'am…?" the officer that had restrained Victoria began.

"Who's your superior? I need to know who to talk to about your abstracting of justice, or can I just take them?"

"Hold on a second, there's no need for that," the man protested, "Take 'em, take 'em."

"That's what I thought," the tall woman said, relieving the officer of Victoria. Just before Victoria began to struggle, the woman whispered, "Don't struggle, a little girl breaking out of an officers arms will get on the news and blow your cover, cyborg."

Victoria said nothing and continued sneering as the woman then took custody of Barry and began escorting the two of them out of the airport. The wall of heat that hit them when they got outside felt so refreshing to Victoria, at first anyway, after fifteen minutes, the heat was starting to feel intolerable. "It's so damn hot," she whined.

"Ah yup," the tall blond women said, "about thirty seven or so degrees."

"You know, there's not much chance of a guy running away from such a beautiful woman, so why don't you just take these handcuffs off?" Barry asked with his usual charm.

The woman laughed and jerked his cuffs up, "I was warned that you were a smooth talker, but not ballsy idiot."

Victoria hid a smile and asked, "So who are you anyway?"

"I'll tell you that in me car where the other two're waiting."

A few minutes later, Victoria and Barry were thrown into the back seat of a Nissan Patrol next to Andromeda, the tall woman throwing them the key to the cuffs, and then taking up residence in the driver's seat. While Barry and Victoria uncuffed themselves, she introduced herself, "I'm EllenGibson, you'll be living with me for the duration of your stay. As you might have guessed, I'm your ASIO contact; I'll be helping but not getting directly involved. If there's any trouble, there is an MP5K in the clove compartment along with a couple of magazines, a Remington 870 behind the back seat with fifteen rounds, and a couple of USPs under the back seat." She stretched, turned on the car, and turned on the radio, "well, not that that formal crap is out the way, who the heck're you guys really? I know your aliases, but I'll be damned if strangers are sleepin' in my home."

"Dalyn, BarryDalyn," Barry began in what Victoria guessed must have been one of his smoothest voices, "The charming ginger sitting besides me is Andromeda Brandt, and the lovely short haired girl is Victoria."

Mercedes offered her hand to Ellen, "And I'm Mercedes, the smart and funny one."

Ellen shook Mercedes' hand, "Nice to meet you. Alright, let's stop wasting daylight." She turned on the air con and started driving, "So, how long you guys gonna be here?"

"With luck," Mercedes began as she opened her laptop, "we'll be home in a week. Just out of curiosity, how tight is police electronic security?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Ellen mumbled, and then loud enough for everyone to hear, "What is it you want to get?"

"Financials," Barry answered, "The guy's a freelance terrorist and anarchist, he'd have a lot of suspicious money."

"How far from town do you live?" Andromeda asked.

Ellen thought for a minute, "about half an hour."

They rode in silence – besides the radio and Mercedes occasional typing – until they were well out of the city, when Ellen starting swearing at the radio, "Fuck off you communist bastard!"

"You don't like the prime minister?" Barry wondered.

Ellen sighed, "Yeah, but I just hate all the politicians. They're all a bunch of twats, not a single brain cell between the lot."

Victoria leaned forward and a whacked Mercedes on the side of the head to get her attention, "Where's you bag?" She needed something to do and all the guns had been hidden in Mercedes bag. Lucky seeing as how both Victoria and Barry had lost their bags after getting arrested.

"You're not cleaning your gun," Andromeda mumbled without opening her eyes. Victoria's Handler was half asleep with bad jetlag.

"You couldn't anyway," Mercedes said over her shoulder, "It's in the back."

Barry turned around to look at the back of the Nissan, knocking Victoria in the head with his elbow and muttering an apology, "What is all that stuff anyway?"

"Presents," Ellen said without any explanation.

"For whom?" Barry asked somewhat rudely.

Ellen sighed, "Folks back home don't go into the city that much, so when one of us does go, the rest give 'em some money and they buy stuff for them. Oh, that reminds me, we're having a barbie tomorrow night to introduce you to everyone."

"Why?" Andromeda asked, still only half awake.

"It's the norm," Ellen explained, "you're the new folks in town and everybody wants to meet you. Saves me goin' 'round and dropping off everyone's shopping too."

Victoria harrumphed and stared out the window. As much as she enjoyed the landscape speeding by, she didn't like sitting down for hours and doing nothing. Just like her Handler, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

"…ake up, Victoria," Barry was saying, nudging her shoulder, "Come on, wake up.

Victoria looked up and out the window. The sun was low on the horizon. "Where are we?" she asked groggily.

"At the servo, hon," Ellen said after opening the door so that Victoria nearly fell out, "Dinner time. Don't worry, I'm payin'."

Victoria got out, stretched and walked around a little; it was good to exercise the ol' artificial muscles.

"I'll meet you inside," Barry said, climbing out of the Nissan, "soon as I wake the missus."

Inside the service station, which was surprisingly clean considering all the dirt outside, Mercedes and Victoria scrutinised the food on offer. Victoria suspected that only the pre packaged sandwiches and cupcakes hadn't been cooked in oil.

"Take your time and choose as much as you like," Ellen said with a friendly smile.

Mercedes just about pressed her face on the hot glass as she leaned forward, "those chicken wing things look nice, and maybe some chips."

"You on a diet or something?" Victoria laughed as she slapped Mercedes in the back so that the slightly younger cyborg smacked her face against the glass. "I'll have four of those chicken wings, three dim sims, a couple of those kebabs, one of those things-"

"A Chico roll," Ellen whispered.

"Yeah, that's it," Victoria continued, "a Chico roll, a bucket of those batter covered chip things-"

"chicken chips," Ellen again whispered.

"Yeah, a bucket of regular chips, and a meat pie. And a potato pie, that looks nice too."

The lady at the counter looked up at Ellen.

"You heard them," Ellen said with a shrug, then turned to the cyborgs, "You want a drink?"

"Got my own," Mercedes said, patting her concealed flask.

"Yeah alright," Victoria said as she walked over to and scrutinised the drinks before getting a Diet Coke.

Mercedes sneered, "What, you on a diet or something?"

"Are you gonna be like that for the rest of the trip?" Victoria said, rolling her eyes.

Mercedes shook her head and smiled cynically, "Oh, you wait. I'll have my vengeance."

A half hour later they were back on the road, Barry in the front this time because he had called 'shotgun'.

"So what exactly do you guys plan on doing once we find this guy?" Ellen inquired, sounding more like she was making conversation than out of genuine curiosity.

"Kill him and go home," Andromeda said as she curled back up in her corner of the car to go back to sleep.

"Maybe we should listen to the radio instead," Barry said, leaning forward and switching on the radio.

Victoria looked out the window at the nearly set sun, wishing she had her handgun to clean.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Own Gunslinger Girl, I do not. Yu Aida, own it he does.

* * *

Chapter 2

Blend In, Start Investigating

As the sun set on Ellen's homestead, she and a few other people started lighting fires to help keep guests warm. Unlike the others, Victoria was leaning on the barbwire fence that surrounded the homestead with one of Ellen's spare flannelette shirts on. The food had all been eaten so she saw no reason to stick around, especially since her Handler was asleep again, having worked pretty hard helping to set everything up and still having jet lag even after a couple of days. As much as Andromeda would deny it, she wasn't the soldier she used to be. Victoria leaned on the nearby post and started at the township in the distance.

Fellgine was in a desert, with only saltbush and the occasional gum tree able to grow, and hot days and cold nights no matter the season. Most people lived in town and worked at the shops or as farm hands, the rest lived and worked on the various sheep stations in the surrounding area. From what Victoria had learned so far, there were three suspects in their case, all recently returned after a long trip and with unexplainably large amounts of money at their disposal. The first was a station owner in his mid-fifties by the name of JosephMcDowell, with one son and one daughter. He was a major supporter of the community for several years before leaving for several more, and both he and his family had been a major influence on the town. The second was a man just returning to his family for the Christmas holidays called Harry Travers, who was in his late sixties and only person to have lived overseas most of his life. The holidays were the first time he had returned to Australia in over thirty five years. The last was DanSink, who was born in Yugoslavia and his family moved to Australia when he was four and began working the land in Fellgine. He moved back to Yugoslavia as soon as he could and visited for Christmas every year.

Victoria heard three people's footsteps approaching her and disturbing her quiet contemplation. She turned around to see Mercedes dragging along Christine and David, Joseph's children. She was sixteen and he was seventeen, the same biological ages a Mercedes and Victoria respectively. "…you remember Trish, my anti-social twat of a sister?"

It was clear to Victoria that Mercedes, or 'Ann' as she should get used to calling her here, had had too much to drink, which was pretty impressive considering her almost perpetual state of being sober despite all the whiskey she drinks. "What have you been drinking?"

"A wittle bit o' this, an' an wittle bit o' that," She giggled evasively, "there's this Wild Turkey stuff that's actually quite nice, but enough about me, come on, these people are here to meet you, so come on, go meet them." She waved her hands around extravagantly.

Victoria shook her head, "Well, dad's regaling them all with one of his stories, mum's asleep, and you're drinking yourself stupid with your new friends. Everyone else is allowed to do their own thing, so why can't I?"

"Ah, forget it," Ann said, draping her arm over Christine, "let's go have some more drinks!" the pair twirled around and marched back off to the party.

Victoria turned back around, leaned on the wire, and stared at the township. If the others could find the information, she could sift through it and find the important bits no problem, gathering information on the other hand was not her thing. She always found analysing data easier than gathering.

"Watcha thinkin' 'bout?" David asked, leaning on the fence next to Victoria.

"None of your business," Victoria said without looking at him.

"Don't be like that," he said, turning to face her and leaning on the fence with his elbow, "we're all friends here."

"I'm not interested in making friends," Victoria snarled, he didn't seem to get the hint, "Just leave me be."

"You're sister told me you might be cold," he leaned closer, "but I get the feeling that it's just a façade. I bet you're a really nice person."

"That's a fancy word," she commented dryly.

He ignored her, "You know, me an' me sister are going roo shootin' on the weekend, so we invited Ann to come along. She mentioned you're a bit of a gun nut, so I thought it might be nice to invite you along as well. You in?"

"Uh…" it would be an opportunity to brush up on her shooting while she was there, and maybe do a bit of spying, "… Sure, I should just check-"

"Already cleared it with your folks," he interrupted.

"Well, thanks, David." She said reluctantly.

"Just call me Dave," he said with the same fake charm as Barry.

Victoria shook her head, "Don't even think of trying anything, smooth guy, not unless you want me rip off your arm and beat you to death with it."

000

"So," Barry began a couple of days later when Victoria and Mercedes were getting ready to go to Joseph's place to go roo shooting, "You're to snoop around as much as possible." Ellen handed Victoria and Mercedes several bugs, both camera and sound. "Victoria, you do all the heavy lifting, leave all the computer stuff and planning and general smart people things to Mercedes-"

Andromeda smacked Barry on the back of the head, "Fuck up, dickweed…"

"She's blending in well," Ellen muttered to herself.

"…Victoria could kick your arse any day."

"That's my point," Barry explained patiently, "Mercedes is better at this espionage stuff, Its what she's trained for. Just follow Mercedes' lead on this one Victoria."

"Yeah, yeah, I bloody know all that," Victoria moaned, "I've been put on these sort of ops before you know."

"When?" Andromeda demanded.

Victoria traced a line over her own face in the same place as Andromeda's scar, "When I gave you that." It still cut Victoria up inside that her Handler had been badly injured because of her, but at least she could talk about it a little without breaking down now. "Jean had me working with 'Sandro and Petra. It was less than pleasant, let's just leave it at that."

Mercedes slid on her sunglasses, "Don't worry boss man, I'll take care of her. You guys just worry about the other two and let us do our job."

Since Victoria and Mercedes had made friends with Joseph's kids on their first night at the homestead, and Andromeda and Barry were to handle the investigation of Dan and Harry respectively.

000

"Have you two ever fired a rifle before?" Christine asked as her brother loaded some rifles and ammo into the back of an old Holden Ute.

"A couple of times," Mercedes lied.

"What calibre?"

"Two-two-three and twenty-two," Victoria said with a shrug.

"Just twenty-two for me," Mercedes quickly added.

Christine put an arm around Mercedes, "A'ighty then, you can sit in the cabin with me. Trish, you can sit in the back with the rifles and your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," Victoria glowered at the same time as Dave shouted; "She's not my girlfriend!"

Mercedes and Christine shared a laugh.

Christine let go of Mercedes and picked up a twenty-two and handed it to Victoria, "Why don't you show us what you've got, see those cans…" Christine pointed at some Coke cans on a wooden fence that must have been about a hundred metres away.

The corners of Victoria's mouth curled into the start of a dangerous smile, "Too easy."

Christine put a hand on Victoria's shoulder just as the cyborg was levelling the rifle, and held up a rag "A'ight then, do it blind folded."

"W-what?"

Christine broke down into laughter, "I'm just kidding."

"Excuse me," Mercedes interrupted, tapping her new friend's shoulder, "I need to use the bathroom."

"Of course," Christine said, looking surprised, "Just go into the house, down the hall and forth door on the right."

"Thanks," Mercedes said over her shoulder as she ran off to the house.

As soon as she closed the front door behind her, she started checking the rooms to make sure no one else was in the house. There was one room with an electronic lock and there was a computer in Joseph's room, however there would be no time to get to them, having confirmed it was all clear, she started planting the bugs. There were several in the kitchen and living room, and several more in each bedroom. She even put a couple in the toilet and a couple more in the bathroom. After planting all her bugs, she hurried back before Christine and Dave got too suspicious. "I'll be back for you," she said to the computer and lock.

"You took you time," Christine joked as she started the Ute and Mercedes got in.

"Sorry, I-"

"Don't worry about it."

Christine put the car into gear and took off, heading… west, Mercedes suspected.

"You're sister and me brother are starting to take a real liking to each other," Christine mentioned candidly after some time driving across the plains that surrounded the homestead. Most of the land around Fellgine was flat, so the roos could be easily spotted, and it was Victoria and Dave's job to spot and shoot the roos… for now. They would take turns every hour or so, the two in the cabin swapping with the pair in the tray.

"You think so?" Mercedes asked, feigning ignorance.

The other girl laughed, "'coarse, I ain't seen my brother like this since his last girlfriend."

"Well, I have noticed a change in her attitude since moving here. Maybe this…"

Dave bashed on the window, shouting, "I got a bunch o' roos to the north, about four clicks!"

000

Dave sat back down next to Victoria in the back of the Ute, the wind blowing his hair all over his face. Victoria found it amusing that her own hair was shorter than his, though his was fairly long for a boy.

"Get your rifle ready," he shouted to be heard above the wind, his sister was driving fairly fast, "you remember where the spare rounds are?"

"In the storage box, the one stuck to the side of the tray, which has two hinges and can use a padlock but doesn't have one. Am I right?"

He rolled his eyes, "You just needed to say yes. Alrighty, get ready." He kicked the cabin, "slow down, bullets aren't cheap you know!"

"Yeah, yeah," his sister's muffled voice shouted back.

Dave shouldered his rifle, and Victoria was surprised that his stance was not dissimilar to her own. This guy had professional rifle training.

000

Andromeda sat on the porch with a cup of coffee, watching a shirtless farm hand fixing a truck.

"You done perving yet?" Barry asked, taking a seat next to her with his own coffee, undoubtedly Irish.

"I was just thinking-"

"That must have been a novel experience," the Englishman chuckled.

Andromeda glared at him, "that I should fucking cut you!"

"Sorry, but seriously, what was it you wanted to say?" Despite Andromeda's suspicions about Barry's despicable motives, he looked pretty sincere.

"Well, you remember when Angelica died? Do you know what Victoria said to me when she found out the cause?" She finished her coffee. "She told me that if she ever got like that, where she couldn't remember what she did that day, or even ten minutes ago, that I was to take a high powered gun and shoot her through the eye." She shook her head. "There's no way I could do that, at least not until it starts to get really bad-"

"How can you say that?" Barry demanded angrily, jumping up and looking about ready to strike Andromeda, "You'd shoot her!"

Andromeda grabbed his collar and pulled him down to the ground, whispering angrily, "Keep your bloody voice down you, fucktard! You want to blow our cover?"

He wrestled his way out of her grip, "Fine, we'll continue this inside."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Barry demanded, pulling their bedroom door shut behind them.

"What the fuck do you mean by that? Angelica was miserable those last few months, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to go through that, and Victoria fucking obviously doesn't! We tell them to go and do our dirty work and let them die with as much dignity as pile of horse shit. The least we can do is let them have the last few months of their life in happiness."

"What has killing them got to do with that?" Barry demanded, throwing his arms in the air and stomping his foot.

Andromeda took a deep breath to try and calm herself, and lit a Cuban, "That's what I was getting at before you interrupted me. Like I said, Victoria seems happy here, so I was thinking that we'd run away to some little town like this, let her be happy for a few months before I have to…"

Barry waved his hand, "You don't have to continue, I know what you're saying." He sat on the bed and hung his head in his hands. "Believe me, you're not the only person who's thought about that sort of stuff. It's just not practical, how would you even go about it? You'd be on the run for the rest of your lives."

"Haven't you figured it out by now?" Andromeda said around her Cuban with a slight smile, "I'm a master at improvised plans."

"You know that's completely contradictory, right? You can't improvise a plan."

"Fuck you, Barry."

000

"I'm certain of it," Victoria reaffirmed for the third time after getting back, "Joseph is our guy, and his son's in on it too. How else would explain his nearly perfect rifle stance?"

Mercedes fell onto the couch, "I planted the bugs, but there's still a computer and a locked door I couldn't get into. So, your call, boss man,"

Barry leaned forward in maniacal contemplation, "Alright, tomorrow, you two go over there under the cover of night and get into those things."

000

Dave leaned in the door frame to his father's room, "It's most definitely them. You want me to take care of it?" There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the family staying with MissGibson were the cybernetic operatives his father had told him about.

His dad shook his head, "No, no. I've got a little surprise for them."


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I doth owneth of the fair'st Gunslinger Girl, for thou art the property of Yu Aida

* * *

Chapter Three

And Thus it Was That the Shit Hit Thine Fan

Victoria and Mercedes stayed low as they approached the McDowell homestead through the saltbushes. The night provided ample cover as they sprinted over the forty metres of open ground between the house and the saltbush. Although no one would be in the house – Andromeda and Barry had invited them all to a counter meal at the pub – she had her gun our anyway. More specifically one of Ellen's USPs, her 93R wouldn't accept a suppressor.

"You know you don't need that," Mercedes chastised in French as she picked the lock on the front door, "Nobody is home and even if they were, that's the reason we're dressed like ninjas…"

"Because nobody can catch a ninja?" Victoria joked, also in French and looking around to make sure nobody was there to see the two cyborgs.

"No," Mercedes whispered angrily, again in French, "Who would believe someone that said ninjas broke into their house. Especially French ninjas. We'd be dressed as pirates if the outfits weren't so cumbersome and unwieldy." She flashed Victoria a quick smile, "Plus me and Barry always wanted to dress as ninjas."

Victoria shook her head, "Just hurry the hell up."

There was a click behind Victoria, "Got it."

Mercedes stepped aside while she quickly put her pick locking tools away. Victoria swept the house, finally calling, "Clear!" when she was done.

Mercedes came in and set her bag down by the electronically locked door and pulled the cover off the key pad, allowing her to plug in her laptop. "I'll get the door first, then as you look through the room I'll move onto Joseph's computer."

Victoria moved to the window and pulled the curtains back to keep an eye out. After fifteen minutes she went back to Mercedes, "What the hell's taking so long?" she demanded.

"This isn't as easy as it looks," Mercedes growled, she didn't like being interrupted when she was working, "start looking for some sort of manual override or something. There's got to be…"

Victoria rolled her eyes, "Fuck it." She brought up her leg and kicked the door off its hinges.

"What the hell!" Mercedes exclaimed, jumping back.

"There's you manual override, now get to that computer; it's bloody cold in these things and I want to get the hell outta here. Don't look at me like that; we'll just stage a break in to cover up the door."

Mercedes shook her head and walked off the Joseph's computer.

Victoria stuck her handgun into her belt and walked into the room. It was a dark room with no windows. She felt around the door frame looking for a light switch, to no avail. She began to feel her way around the room and hit her foot against something heavy. "Argh, fucken shit piece of crap!"

"Keep it down," Mercedes said harshly but quietly, "There still might be someone outside you know."

"I'm not the idiot that left shit all over the floor," Victoria growled, finally finding the light switch. The light nearly blinded her when it came on, but then she saw what she had bumped into; it was a metal box just like the one in the back of the Ute, except with a padlock. There were boxes just like it stacked all around the room.

Victoria left the room and went to Mercedes.

"…n't a security system in the world that can keep me out," Mercedes said with a grin as Victoria approached. Despite strictly telling Victoria to keep her mask pulled up, the younger cyborg had pulled hers down.

"I take it you got in?"

"Ah yup, what'd you find in the room?"

"Nothing but a bunch of locked boxes. You got anything in your bag of tricks to help get a padlock off."

"You want me to pick it?"

Victoria shook her head, "I was thinking more about breaking it, but that works too. While you do that, I'll go get a sledge from one of the sheds to smash the door open with."

"Good idea," Mercedes said, walking off to pick the lock.

Victoria ran to one of the surrounding sheds in search of a hammer, and after finding one, locked the front door, crept out a window, and bashed the door down, then went and closed the window.

"Have you always been this noisy," Mercedes began when Victoria returned to the room full of crates, "or did you have to put a lot of work and effort into it?" There was a click, "Gotcha!"

Mercedes pulled off the padlock and opened the box. It was full of hundred dollar bills, American.

"This is a little bit suspicious," Mercedes commented, getting her camera out and taking some photos, then locking it back up. "Hit that a few times but don't break it. Just make sure it's enough to make it look like someone tried to get in but gave up."

Victoria hefted the hammer, "You're the boss."

Mercedes got the second box open a lot quicker than she had the first. Victoria heard the distinct click before she had finished bashing the first container. The second box contained fifty and hundred euro notes. "Yeah, this is definitely our guy," Mercedes said as she took some photos, and then locked the box back up, "I'll copy his drive and you go take some expensive looking stuff, we can bury it in one of their fields. Don't give me that look of contempt and disgust, you were the heathen that decided to break the door down and make this look like a robbery, we need to follow through."

When they left, the place had been ransacked and some valuable looking items buried a few kilometres away. No one would be any the wiser that it was them, they even put evidence to suggest some drifters who had done it.

000

Joseph looked around what remained of his house, his son consoling his distraught sister. He had no doubt who had done this. Those Agency dogs had attacked his family directly, he would make them pay, no matter what it took, he _would_ make them pay.

000

It had been a couple of days since Mercedes and Victoria had broken into Joseph's house, and Ellen, Andromeda and Victoria had had to go into town for some sort of emergency. Mercedes hadn't really paid attention and didn't care. It was only a week and a half until Christmas and she wanted to be back at the Agency. Plus it was the middle of the night, no time to be running around in a foreign country.

"You found anything interesting, yet?" Mercedes called to Barry as she walked into the kitchen, a towel wrapped around her. Barry was still sorting through the data she had gotten from Joseph's computer some time ago. It had been decided that everyone should concentrate on Joseph since there wasn't much more evidence to say that the other suspects were involved in criminal acts in Italy. One of them was a drug smuggler, but he wasn't the Italians' concern. Plus they couldn't act until they were 100% certain it was him.

"There's some interesting stuff and a couple of movies that we'll have to steel," Barry shouted back as Mercedes got a bottle of milk out the fridge and had a drink, "but there's only a little bit of incriminating stuff."

000

Alfred stood up just enough to see above the saltbush. He waved the rest of his men forward. had spent months getting the team ready to take on the cyborgs, and they had been itching for a chance to take them out. He pulled the bolt back on his SCAR-H.

"Machine guns in position," Jericho said over the radio. It was Taylor and his job to open up with a pair of MG3s if the cyborgs tried to do a runner.

"Sniper ready," Lehmann added. He was armed with a Zastava M93 Black Arrow, ready to eliminate anyone who escaped out the back.

The four remaining men, including Alfred, quietly sprinted over the open ground between the shrubs and the house; they could hear two people inside.

"…ound anything interesting yet?" one called. A female, young, most likely a cyborg.

"There's some interesting stuff and a couple of movies we'll have to steel, but there's only a little incriminating stuff," A male responded. Most likely a Handler for the cyborg.

Alfred moved to the other side of front door across from Tobias, and relayed his orders to the other two members of his team, Bruno and Rostislav; _go around to the back door. Breach in forty seconds. Go_.

The two men nodded and moved swiftly to their assigned position.

Tobias folded his UMP45s stock and waited patiently.

Alfred held up his fingers, _Three… two…one…_ he made a fist …_mark_.

000

Mercedes put the milk back in the fridge and heard music start playing, Barry must have been getting bored. The opening riff of Black Betty started up and Mercedes was playing the air guitar back to her room when two men dressed in black combat gear and armed with a M60 and a Neostead appeared in the hallway.

Mercedes screamed as loud as she could, ripped off her towel, and threw it at the two men to block their vision. Mercedes was almost useless in close quarters combat, but she was going to use her nakedness to her advantage. The men opened fire, but she had ducked low and to the right, dodging their shots. She tackled the man with the M60 to the ground and took the Taurus Raging Bull from his holster, and rolled to the end of the hall in a single motion.

"You okay, Barry?" Mercedes called out, checking that the revolver was loaded.

There were several gunshots, "Just dandy…" There were several more, some of them must have been from Barry's Browning Hi-Powered, "… you want some of this, bitches?"

Mercedes shook her head, got on the ground and rolled across the hall into the adjacent bedroom, firing the stolen revolver, aiming for the man with the shotgun and shooting him in the chest when she was in the middle of the hall, nearly losing the revolver because of the recoil.

"What the hell, is this .500 S&W?" Mercedes wondered aloud as she jumped through the bedroom window. As cold as it was outside, she wasn't waiting for the machine gun wielding maniac to come in and kill her.

000

"One naked woman exiting the window," Lehmann said over the radio, "Opening fire." Several shots sounded in the distance, "damn, she's fast."

Alfred couldn't figure out where the black man was. He and Tobias had breached through the door and the black man had jumped over the couch and fired a few shots from a handgun, and just disappeared. He had appeared a few seconds later, fired a couple of rounds, and then disappeared again.

The black man appeared again and fired several shots, one of them hitting Alfred in the chest, knocking him back a bit. Good thing they had decided to wear Kevlar this evening.

Tobias fired at the black man, but he had disappeared again.

There was a burst of machinegun fire down the hall.

000

Mercedes had smashed into window after being fired at by a sniper, very thankful that there had been a spare pair of thongs just lying around outside for her to put on so that she didn't cut her feet. Whoever these guys were, they were well supplied, as she would recognise the bullet hole from a 12.7mm anywhere.

She leaned out of the room just enough to be able to see down the hallway. The man with the M60 had his back to her, excellent. She stepped into the hallway and levelled the revolver at the back of his head. "Looking for someone?"

He turned around, and just as she could see the white in his eyes and the realisation of what was about to happen on his face, she fired. Again, forgetting to compensate for the recoil and nearly losing the handgun again.

She ran to the other side of the house where she could hear Barry fighting at least two other men. She turned into the hall that led to the front door and saw two men. She levelled the revolver at one armed with a UMP…

000

Pistol rounds flew past Alfred's head as he dived out of the door way. "Come on!" he shouted as he turned to Tobias just in time to see his comrade's brains explode out the side of his head. "God dammit!"

Knowing this was a lost battle, he ran for the nearest window and dived through it, cutting his hands and arms in the process and ran. As he was running, he got hit in the back of the leg and shouted into his mic, "Open fire, open fire, open fire!"

000

"Open fire, open fire, open fire!" the boss shouted over the radio.

Jericho and Taylor pulled the bolts back on their MG3s and opened fire on the house.

000

Barry was firing his Browning out the window at the retreating man, but Mercedes heard the man shouting, "Open fire, open fire, open fire!" and dropped the revolver and tackled her handler to the ground just before bullets started to tear through the house.

"We'll go out the side door," Mercedes shouted to her handler so that she could be heard above the destruction, "there's a sniper watching the back."

"We need some weapons we can fight these guys with," Barry shouted back, hands over his head to protect himself from debris, "We need something to kill them."

"There's an M60 in the hall, I'll go get that!" Mercedes said making her way down the hall, getting cut by splinters and glass. When she got to the man with a UMP, she tossed the weapon and a couple of magazines to Barry, then used the dead body as a shield from the bullets. When she finally got to the M60, she checked how many bullets it had left and switched it to semi-automatic, then made her way to the back door. "Alright Barry, I need a decoy to get the sniper!"

"If I die, I'm going to haunt you!"

Mercedes shook her head and waited on the floor by the door. She heard a slight interruption in the rhythm of machine gun fire and knew that the sniper was firing at Barry. She got up and rolled out the door, levelling her weapon at the sniper's muzzle flash. "Gotcha." She fired once… twice… three times. The sniper went down.

The machine gun fire continued.

Mercedes got on her stomach and crawled around the house, giving it a forty metre berth, and looked for the muzzle flash from the machineguns. She fired three shots at each one, silencing them both.

000

Falling to the ground, Alfred gripped his leg wound and grunted. He had lost too much blood, he was starting to go into shock. "Come on you bastard, get the fuck up!" he said to himself.

He tried to get up, but her collapsed from the pain. "Argh! Don't you fucking bleed out, you son of a bitch."

He heard footsteps approach as he clawed his way through the salt bush. He rolled about and drew his Desert Eagle.

"I don't think so," a female voice said as it kicked the gun out of his hand. He couldn't see anything properly, just two silhouettes; a female figure with a machinegun, and a bald, tall figure with a handgun.

The taller of the two lent down and said, "Listen, we got a first aid box and some rags back at the house. Not sure if your machineguns destroyed it or not, but they might be there. Point is, you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours."

Slowly, Alfred reached behind and gipped his Glock 26, there was little chance of being able to kill a cyborg unless he shot it in the eyes, but there was no way in hell he would cooperate with these people, he needed to be quick…

000

The man had lost a lot of blood, and now he was reaching behind his back. Did he get hit there? No. He pulled a handgun out from behind his back and Mercedes pushed Barry to the side with one hand and raised the M60 with the other. She fired a single shot into his hand and he dropped the weapon before it could be pointed at anyone.

The man screamed and grabbed his hand.

Barry shook his head, "I'm trying to help you here. I could let this little minx have at you if you reallly want, but I'd recommend against it. Don't take too long to think about it though, you'll bleed out in a few minutes."

"Fuck you," the man growled.

Barry picked up the desert eagle and held it to the man's balls, "You're choice buddy.

The man sneered, "Fine."

Barry stuck the Eagle in the back of his pants, "I'll carry this guy back to the house, he doesn't look so heavy." He looked Mercedes up and down. "The others might be a bit upset if they get back and find you like this."

"Like what?"

He grinned like a wolf, "As magnificent as the human body is, you should probably cover yours up."

"Cover my…?" Suddenly, Mercedes remembered that she was naked and covered herself up as best she could with her hands, "What the hell is wrong with you, staring at me like that!"

He pointed a finger at her accusingly, "You can't bloody run around naked and not expect people to look, it's common sense. Besides, you've got quite a nice body, maybe we should add some more bikinis and tank tops to your repertoire, you'd be quite lethal."

"Yeah, yeah," Mercedes said over her shoulder as she walked back to the house to look for some clothes, wiggling her butt a little to tease her Handler, "just get that guy fixed up, I'm getting a drink."


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: O, Gunslinger Girl, thou can'st be thine, for ye art the property of Yu Aida.

* * *

Chapter Four

The Enemy Revealed

Ellen paced up and down her destroyed lounge room, "So let me go through this one more time. Joseph is the arms dealer/anarchist/freelance terrorist/whatever the fuck you want to call him, and he found out that you suspect he's a baddie, so then he sends a team of hit men who have been specifically assembled to eliminate cyborgs to kill you. They proceed t destroy my house and you two," she pointed at Barry and Mercedes, "killed them all while in the nude without getting hit once and decided to violate just about every civil rights law set in place by the UN and the Australian government and in the process ruin all my kitchen utensils, bed sheets, and fruit. Did I miss anything out?"

Mercedes lifted her hand, "I was the only one that was naked. And there are still a couple of clean sheets in laundry."

"How did you use up all the fruit?" Victoria asked from her seat next the Mercedes on the bullet ridden couch.

Mercedes tapped the side of her nose, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Enough," the very stressed ASIO agent said crisply, "You realise I can't ever live here again right? I've been usurped! I grew up in this house; my father grew up in this house. After this, I can never return here, not to mention the huge fucking stack of paperwork that awaits me about having to clean up this bloody mess!"

Victoria leaned on the armrest and muttered, "She's going into hysterics again."

"You know what, fuck it!" Ellen shouted, throwing he hands up in the air, "I don't care anymore, I really don't." She walked off down the hall, "I'm going to make a sandwich, and I'm going to use a combat knife to butter it because someone ruined all my other bloody knives!"

"Honestly, what the fuck did you do to the guy, I mean, what could you possibly do with fruit?" Victoria wondered aloud again.

"So what now?" Andromeda asked from the corner of the room, a MG3 balanced over her shoulders. She'd picked the thing up as soon as she, Victoria and Ellen had returned, and hadn't put it don since.

"We go kill him," Victoria said a little too enthusiastically, flicking he hands and producing a shuriken in both.

"You can't just kill 'im," Ellen mumbled, not bothering to finish her food before talking as she returned from the kitchen. Jesus that woman could make a sandwich quickly. "The guy's a local hero. Just killing him might have some nasty repercussions for my home town. Besides, Aussie police are a persistent bunch, they'd figure something's up sooner or later."

"Can't ASIO just cover it up?" Andromeda scoffed.

"I work for ASIO, not the Gestapo. We don't do that sort of shit here, we ain't fascists."

"How is this going to be covered up then?" Barry asked, crossing his legs and waving a finger at the walls of the destroyed lounge room.

"Blame it on a bikie gang or something; we do it all the time."

"Why the hell can't we do it for Joseph then?" Andromeda demanded.

"Fine, I don't even care anymore."

000

Joseph went to Dave's room, "I need to talk to you."

Dave put down his book and sat up, "Whatta you need, dad."

"We're in trouble. My team didn't report back and I think we'll be hit soon. Your sister's going to go and stay with one of her friends in town. You and me will be taking out the cyborgs when they come to get us."

"I'll get the Zastava Black Arrow-"

Joseph shook his head, "No, you haven't been trained to use a sniper yet. Grab one of the SCARs. This is our home; we'll defend it with our lives."

000

Victoria stayed low as she and Andromeda approached the McDowell homestead. She had the SCAR-H used by one of the men that attacked Barry and Mercedes and Andromeda had a UMP. Mercedes and Barry were perched on some slightly elevated ground about a click and a half from the house, armed with a Black Arrow, both the MG3s and the M60. They were the fire support, and they had to use whatever was on tap.

"Do we have confirmation that the target is inside?" Andromeda asked over the radio.

"Target confirmed," Barry replied, "plus one extra, believed to be his son. Both are armed with assault rifles."

"Victoria and I are moving in," Andromeda informed Barry.

Andromeda and Victoria slowly approached the house on their stomachs, and then got up once they were at the edge of the saltbush.

Automatic rifle burst from one of the windows and Andromeda and Victoria dived to either side to avoid the incoming bullets.

Two shots echoed in the distance and perforated the wall below the window. The machinegun fire ceased.

"Can you confirm the kill?" Andromeda asked over the radio. Both she and Victoria were on their stomachs about forty metres from the house, reloading their weapons.

000

"Negative on kill confirm," Barry replied, putting the binoculars down, and puling the bolt back on the M60 and bracing it against his shoulder, "Providing suppressing fire, keep your heads down."

000

Bullets flew overhead as Andromeda and Victoria crawled up to the house. When they were near the porch, the suppressing fire ceased. They took cover on either side of the door and Andromeda began made a hand signal, _blitzkrieg_.

Victoria nodded.

"Motion near the front door," Mercedes called over the radio, "suggest third window to your right as alternate entry point."

"Roger that," Andromeda said quietly.

Andromeda began making hand signals again, _third window, right side_.

Victoria nodded and ducked so that she couldn't be seen through the other windows as she passed. Victoria stood up next to the window and Andromeda repeated the exercise. Andromeda smashed the window in with the UMPs stock and Victoria climbed in through the window and scanned the room, it appeared to be Christine's bedroom. She scanned the room and said, "All clear."

Andromeda climbed through the window and the two of them took up positions on either side of the door. Victoria took out a hand mirror and checked the hallway, whispering, "all clear."

They moved into the hallway and Dave appeared out of nowhere and fired at them. Victoria put herself between Andromeda and the incoming bullets, shielding her eyes with one arm and firing the SCAR with her other. Dave hit the wall and slumped to the ground.

Victoria felt her shirt getting damp. She looked down and fell to her knees, clutching at her stomach. She'd been badly wounded; Dave's SCAR must have been loaded with armour piercing rounds. "ARGH, fuck this hurts!"

Andromeda pulled Victoria back into Christine's room, saying into her radio, "Victoria's been hit, we're bugging out."

"Fuck that shit," Victoria screamed at her Handler, "we need to kill this fucker!" She pulled herself up against the wall, "just tourniquet this," she pointed at the wound, "and leave me here, I'll be fine."

000

Joseph nudged his way around the kitchen so that he could see into the living room. He had heard gunfire on the other side of the house while getting some body armour, and was making his way around to see what had happened. "Dave, Dave, you get 'em?" He looked around the corner, down the hall and saw his son against the wall, dead. "NO!"

000

Andromeda heard someone screaming down the opposite end of the hall to the dead son, "NO! You motherfuckers, I'm gonna kill you!"

"Coax him over to you," Barry said over the radio, "he's too angry t think and will run into your trap. And yes, I did hear that screaming all the way from here, it's very quiet outside."

Andromeda shook her head but said, "Alright," she turned back to Victoria, "are you gonna be ready for this?"

Victoria coughed and lifted the half empty battle rifle, "Born ready, motherfucker."

"That's right," Andromeda yelled out the door, "we killed him, and he screamed like a little bitch!" then stepped back and took cover behind a chest of drawers."

Joseph appeared in the door frame and both Andromeda and Victoria opened fire, but he didn't go down. He was chuckling as he opened fire, despite being shot.

As soon as Victoria's rifle clicked empty she flicked her wrist to produce a hidden shuriken and threw it at the now growling terrorist's head.

"Andromeda…! Victoria began frantically.

"Relax," Andromeda grunted, pushing herself up off the ground from behind the drawers, "I only got hit in the shoulder, nothing too bad. That guy can't aim for shit."

Victoria sighed with relief and dragged herself over to Joseph to retrieve her shuriken, despite Andromeda's protests. She put the weapon back in her sleeve and ripped open Joseph's shirt, revealing a bullet proof vest, and pulled out one of the 7.62mm rounds that wasn't quite stuck, "this is some interesting new stuff…"

"Um…" it was Barry over the radio, "guys, hello…?"

000

Barry and Mercedes waited on their slight elevation. The gunfire had stopped not long ago, but they hadn't received word from the assault team. Barry got on the radio, "Um… guys, hello…? Are we all dead?"

"Serenity, nice," Mercedes said quietly, holding up her hand for a fist bump.

Barry bumped the fist and answered just as quietly, "Thankyou."

"Joseph's dead, so's his son," Andromeda responded, "but we've both been wounded. Call in a medivac."

"Got it," Barry said, getting up, stretching and wiping the dirt off his front, "I'll get in touch with Ellen."


	6. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Who's the amatuar author that doesn't own Gunslinger Girl? I'm the amatuar author that doesn't own Gunslinger Girl.

* * *

Epilogue

Ellen sat on the couch in the ASIO safe house in Adelaide, eating Cornflakes out the packet, and watching Australia's Got Talent in her pyjamas. It had been several months since she worked with the Italians and her house in Fellgine had been destroyed. The ASIO higher ups had promised they would get her a new house, and maintained that they would. Every time she asked how much longer though, they just relocated her to a different safe house. It was a pain in the ass, but she'd be damned if she was going to pay for her own God damned, it wasn't her fault the house had been destroyed, she'd followed orders to the letter.

There was a knock at the door.

Ellen got up and looked through the peephole in the door. There were two men in black suits, one of them looking around rather suspiciously. Ellen pulled open the dead bolt and opened the door enough to look out, "whatta you want?"

They both held up ASIO badges, "Agents Greer and Smith, we…"

"Of coarse you are," Ellen mumbled sarcastically. She opened the door all the way, "come on in, sorry about the state of the place, I've been a little depressed lately." She wiped the crumbs off her pyjama shirt.

The Agents came in and Greer looked around at all the empty Cornflakes boxes, "You eat Cornflakes when you're depressed?"

"Do I go to you when you're depressed and whine about what you do?" Ellen growled.

Agent Greer sat on the couch and Agent Smith leaned on the wall with his arms crossed. "Please, take a seat," Agent Greer said, gesturing at the recliner across from him.

"You realise I live here right," Ellen said, crossing her arms, "I'm the one who tells you to take a seat. Now tell me what you want before I shoot you."

"Friendly, ain't ya?" Agent Smith commented.

"She could do it," Agent Greer said to his partner, then turned back to Ellen, "we understand you worked with the Italian cyborgs?"

Ellen shook her head, "Sorry, don't know what you're talking about."

"Relax, we've got clearance," Agent Greer said, reaching into his jacket and producing the proper paperwork, "like I said, we understand you worked with the Italian cyborgs?"

Ellen sighed, "What of it?"

"The government's starting up its own cyborg program, and wants you to be the cyborg's Handler…" Agent Smith pulled a folder out of his jacket and threw it to Ellen while Agent Greer continued talking, "… her name is Charlotte, and before you ask: no, you don't have a choice."

Ellen opened the folder, the letter head inside reading 'Project Ranger'. The cyborg's full name was CharlotteTsuki. "An interesting name," she commented dryly.

"Pack your things," Agent Greer said, getting up, "we leave in five minutes."


End file.
